wherein Liz sorts books

[edenfalling]

Tonight I finally got around to sorting, counting, and repacking the books I am donating to the Friends of the Library Booksale, on the principle that even if I don't itemize my tax deductions, my parents might as well get to claim these donations on their tax return as a tiny payback for the help they have given me over the years.

Tomorrow morning I will drop off 69 hardcovers or trade paperbacks (including various graphic novels and some manga); 46 mass market paperbacks; 7 children's hardcovers; 9 children's paperbacks; and one really nice illustrated version of Anne of Green Gables that might go for a higher price.

A bunch of these books were things people gave me that I never actually wanted -- this accounts for at least a dozen books on writing, plus some weird Christmas gifts -- and some others were things I picked up thinking I'd read them but never actually got around to and which are readily available through libraries, but an awful lot were from my latest bookshelf-pruning expedition. I don't think I have ever cleared out this many books at once.

But Vicky has been experimenting with a life-decluttering philosophy whose gimmick is that rather than looking at items and asking if you want to get rid of them, you should pick each item up in your hands and ask if holding it brings you joy. If the answer is not a firm yes? Ditch it. So I did.

I mean, I still have somewhere between 500 and 550 volumes of fiction, some graphic novels, some manga, two shelves of "I'm going to read this someday, I swear!", and my nonfiction bookcase which I really need to sort through one of these days. I used a fairly low threshold for joy. But there were a surprising number of books I'd been keeping more or less because I'd always kept them, rather than because I liked them or had any intention of ever rereading them, and I decided that that was a dumb reason. Therefore, out they go, and may they find a home with someone who will love them properly. :-)

Next up, decluttering my clothes!

Comments

[branchandroot]

Book-hoarding is a hard thing to kick, to be sure. *wry* I managed to appease most my own book-dragon tendencies by acquiring almost everything in electronic form, so I can have hundreds of "Maybe I'll read them again, someday!" and "Maybe I'll get around to them someday!" books. But the art books are definitely in that "holding them makes me happy" category.

[edenfalling]

I have not bought a lot of new books for the past, oh, two years? Mostly because I could not justify the space the physical volumes would take up. And yet, I don't have the discretionary funds to buy an e-reader so buying electronic is also not currently an option.

...

Obviously I need to ask all my family and friends to chip in together to buy me a Kindle or Nook for Christmas this year. *wry*

[autumnia]

The nice thing about my old office was the insane amount of books it received from PR and publishing firms in the hopes of getting a favorable review written up. The books no one wanted would end up in the free pile in the kitchen, which is where I ended up picking out books that I'd never think to look up at the library. And of course, once done I would bring it back for someone else to read so I didn't have to keep them around. That said, I still hoard books but I've been giving a lot of them away too.

And it sounds like Vicki is taking a page out of Marie Kondo's book/philosophy. It's been the rage this year and I've taken some of her advice to heart in trying to declutter as well. There's even a hashtag to following her rules to declutter, #konmari. Here's an article by a woman who read Kondo's book and tried it out herself (I plan on trying out the new way to fold clothes soon).

[edenfalling]

Yes, that's the person/book Vicky read! She found the philosophy useful in paring down her stuff for her recent move to a new apartment. I'm not planning to move right now, but I have been sort of despairing over clutter for a long time now, so. :-)